March 12, 1996

BY unintentionally substituting the wrong gas for one they intended to use for hardening tools, workers at a small metallurgical company have accidentally hit upon a potentially valuable method for coating objects with a hard diamond film. Specialists trying to learn why and how the method works warn that it has yet to prove its worth in industrial processing. But if the new diamond-coating technique proves to be as cheap, fast and effective as its inventors say, it may revolutionize the manufacture of machine tools, automobile engines, ships, beverage cans and much more, materials experts say.

A woman whose car was hit by a New Jersey Transit train yesterday while she was apparently trying to cross the tracks suffered cuts and bruises but was not seriously injured, a spokesman for the transit agency said. Witnesses told the transit police that the woman, Nancy Vintimilla of Hackensack, tried to enter the crossing while the gates were coming down and a train was approaching, said the spokesman, Ken Miller. No one on the train was injured, and buses took commuters to their final destination in Hoboken.

Democrats are closing ranks behind William J. Pascrell Jr., the Mayor of Paterson and an Assembly member, who is trying to unseat United States Representative William J. Martini, a freshman Republican. The Essex and Passaic County Democratic organizations have endorsed Mr. Pascrell, and both Mary Lee Fitzgerald, a former State Education Commissioner, and Roger Jacobs, a West Orange lawyer, dropped out of the race last week.

President Clinton is a fan of school uniforms, as are administrators for Passaic's elementary schools. But six years after the school district's optional uniform program began, officials discovered a snag: the BES Company, of Emerson, which made the blue apparel, had gone out of business. Administrators are trying to persuade a Hackensack company to start making the uniforms so the program can continue, said David W. McLean, assistant superintendent of Passaic city schools.

America Online announced two major alliances yesterday, with AT&T and Netscape Communications, that were intended to help the world's largest on-line information service take fuller advantage of the Internet's growing popularity. America Online said it would offer the news services, discussion groups and informational material from its own on-line service to customers of AT&T's new Worldnet Internet access service at an unspecified discount. The move, which is similar to a cable television programmer like HBO signing a distribution deal with a cable operator, will enable America Online to expand its audience by taking advantage of AT&T's nationwide network reach and powerful marketing influence.